Blakeney Point is a National Nature Reserve near Blakeney on the north
coast of Norfolk, England. It features a 6.4 km (4 mi) spit of shingle
stones and sand dunes, as well as salt marshes and tidal mudflats. Land
reclamation projects starting in the 17th century broadened the spit,
but silted up nearby river channels. Ruins of a medieval dwelling called
Blakeney Chapel and a monastery are buried in the marshes. The area has
been studied for more than a century, following pioneering ecological
studies by botanist Francis Wall Oliver and a bird ringing programme
initiated by ornithologist Emma Turner. The reserve is important for
breeding birds, especially terns, and for migrating birds in autumn. Up
to 500 seals at a time gather at the end of the spit, and its sand and
shingle hold a number of specialised invertebrates and plants, including
the edible samphire. The spit is moving towards the mainland at about
1 m (1 yd) per year; several former islets have been covered by the
advancing shingle and then lost to the sea. Managed by the National
Trust since 1912, Blakeney Point lies within an Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty and a World Biosphere Reserve.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blakeney_Point>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1576:
Stephen Báthory and Anna Jagiellon were crowned as the elected
rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Jagiellon>
1786:
The Marriage of Figaro, an opera buffa composed by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marriage_of_Figaro>
1897:
The Ramakrishna Mission was founded by Swami Vivekananda to
serve as the humanitarian counterpart to the Hindu monastic order
Ramakrishna Math.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna_Mission>
1941:
Citizen Kane (scene pictured), a widely acclaimed film by actor
and director Orson Welles, premiered.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Kane>
1956:
A doctor in Japan reported an "epidemic of an unknown disease
of the central nervous system", marking the official discovery of
Minamata disease.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
acheiropoieton:
(chiefly Eastern Orthodoxy) An image of Christ believed not to have
been created by human hands; a miraculous representation of Jesus.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/acheiropoieton>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We only have to look around us to see how complexity and psychic
temperature are still rising: and rising no longer on the scale of the
individual but now on that of the planet. This indication is so familiar
to us that we cannot but recognize the objective, experiential, reality
of a transformation of the planet as a whole.
--Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin>